The Challenge according to Gjalt Huppes as he explained it in the opening session of the Confernce today:
1. We want the good life for 8 billion people by 2050
2. Environmental challenge: by 2050 growth of eco-efficiency with factor 2-5 (means: environmental stress to reduce with 50-80%);
3. Economic challenge: by 2050 4 fold increase of GGP (means: 3.5% p/a, as of now); this is required to eradicate poverty;
4. To meet both environmental and economic/social goals we need to improve eco efficiency with factor of 10 (over 5% per annum), this is an unprecedented challenge, but we have 40 years;
5. The 5% target is an average figure, which means that for many products/services/technologies much more will be needed;
6. We need to look for opportunities to influence consumption volumes, consumption styles and production technologies, by using communication, institutional, policy, cultural, labour and technology drivers.
7. Questions to be addressed in the Conference: can we achieve 5% per annum? And what do we need to know better!